Poetry from the Dirty Side of Life

Bukowski was not the common poet. 

Harsh, irreverent... sometimes offensive. A bard from the underworld. A rule breaker showing realities through the unadorned language of the streets. 

About poetry, he screams in "O We Are The Outcasts":

ah, christ, what a CREW:

more

poetry, always more

P O E T R Y.

In "What Can We Do?" attacks our "humanity".

when activated it's best at brutality,

selfishness, unjust judgments, murder.

Pushing harder in "The Genius Of The Crowd".

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average

human being to supply any given army on any given day

And then comes his profound advice. 

beware the preachers

beware the knowers

beware those who are always reading books

beware those who either detest poverty

or are proud of it

In "How Is Your Heart?", the poet talks from experience.

what matters most is

how well you 

walk through the

fire.

You may like or hate Bukowski, but will agree with this:

We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.